In the past few years a select few of 2D animated feature films have been converted to 3D, most notably Polar Express and Chicken Little. Now, nWave Pictures, one of the largest producers of original 3D material for IMAX theaters and theme parks, is busy producing the first-ever computer animated feature length film designed, created and produced exclusively for 3D.

Beginning last October, nWave Pictures began full-speed production on the 3D feature film Fly Me to the Moon, the story of three pre-teen flies that hope on the 1969 Apollo 11 space shuttle flight to the moon and save the mission in the process. Fly Me to the Moon is scheduled for a summer 2007 release.

“We searched for two years for the right script,” recalls nWave president Charlotte Huggins. “This had everything we were looking for. There was simplicity in terms of the number of characters that we needed since we are self-financing this and needed something that we could produce with our 50-60 animators instead of needing over 200. Then it takes place in three different worlds: the human world, the macro world of outer space and then you zoom in to the world from the flies’ perspective, which is incredibly cool visually for 3D.”

At first, it may be surprising that it is not major film studio undertaking this groundbreaking effort. But nWave has produced more 3D content than any other company, including six of the 29 total IMAX 3D films, as well 3D projects for theme parks and other special venues.

But what made nWave believe the time was right for a 3D animated feature film? The success of the converted 3D films like Chicken Little and Polar Express was a significant indication that audiences are thirsty for more 3D.

“On Polar Express, which was no designed as a 3D film but then was released as such, on just 64 screens playing the 3D version it grossed over $40 million,” says director/CEO of nWave Ben Stassen. “Almost a quarter of their revenues came from about 2 percent of their screens. Seeing that, I think a lot of people started paying attention to the power and profitability of 3D.”

For over 10 years nWave has been able to produce large scale, high-quality projects but at a fraction of the price it usually costs by doing all their work in-house and not allowing themselves to be beholden to the approval of outside investors.

“We design and invent our films and greenlight them internally,” explains Huggins. “We do bring in outside financing but always control the copywrite and the creative. By doing that we save millions just in the time it takes for approvals.”

Adds Stassen, “When dealing with partners you spend so much time preparing the materials for them to review during the process. Here, I go from workstation to workstation approving everything without having to output the material, edit it, stamp sound on it so someone else can judge it. Also during the storyboard process, we shave about six months off that process. We go right from the pre-visualization layout and start building on top of that.”

nWave also does not delve into R&D for their projects and relies on Autodesk Maya along with Renderman running on SGI computers.

Of course all those efficiencies do not matter if the talent and passion for such an undertaking is lacking, and Stassen is certainly passionate about 3D as a medium.

“3D is truly a different type of cinema,” he says. “To me, there is as much difference between a standard feature film and a 3D film as there is between a film and a video game. When you watch a 2D film you relate to it on an intellectual level and an emotional level. With 3D you have the intellectual, emotional and physical level. When I say physical, people immediately think of in-your-face effects. That’s part of it but the big thing is to make it so you feel like you are in the environment and transport the viewer within the filmic space.”

The last piece of the puzzle that made nWave decide the time was right for a 3D animated feature is the digital cinema adoption that is picking up speed. For now, the plans are to release the film on 3D digital polarized, (the way Chicken Little’s 3D release was screened), a color anaglyphic film print and also an IMAX print.

But Stassen adds, “If there are enough digital theaters by 2007 we may bypass film distribution completely and just go digital.”

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